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The title is, believe it or not, HOLDING BANKS ACCOUNTABLE.
I’ll give you a few moments to stop laughing and collect yourselves.
Ok? Ready? Then steel yourselves and proceed to:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/15/1065029/-Holding-Banks-Accountable?detail=hide
Holding Banks Accountable by Shaun Donovan (note authorship on article says Shaun Donovan and Eric Holder
Daily Kos , Wed Feb 15, 2012 at 11:40 AM EST
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Some have asked why we don’t address these actions by taking the banks to court. But rather than pursuing hundreds of lawsuits with varying degrees of success, the goal of this settlement has been to benefit struggling homeowners and to do so now – not sometime in the future, when it may be too late to help many families.
Well, at least it’s clear from their own mouths that it had nothing to do with the actual pursuit of justice.
Check out this statement:
In response to thousands of mortgage servicing complaints fielded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), state attorneys general, and banking regulators across the country, HUD initiated a large-scale review of the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) ten largest servicers in the summer of 2010. Devoting some 6,000 hours to reviewing servicing files for thousands of FHA-insured loans, the scope of this review soon broadened to encompass a long list of mortgage servicing issues, including lost paperwork, long delays, and missed deadlines for loan modifications.
I find this downright deceptive. They are referencing an investigation that was in progress before the 50 State task force was even formed . The task force was announced in October of 2010 and Miller was named as it’s head in Dec. I think this paragraph is a smokescreen to disguise the fact that no investigation went on under the umbrella of the task force itself.. I could be wrong of course, but I don’t think so.
But, do you want to know what is JUST INCREDIBLE? This settlement DOESN’T COVER the FHA loans referenced above!!!!
Should someone tell Shaun Donovan and Eric Holder?
http://www.wafb.com/story/16935481/will-the-26b-mortgage-settlement-help-you
No Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA
Unfortunately, homeowners whose mortgages are backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac are not eligible to receive financial benefits from the settlement. FHA mortgages are similarly excluded. This greatly diminishes the potential impact of the settlement, because together the three account for the majority of U.S. residential mortgages.
Reflect on that for a moment. The HUD Secretary in this poorly written and reasoned apologia reflects on spending 6000 man hours reviewing screwed up FHA files that aren’t even covered by this settlement! It’s beyond mind boggling. It’s pathetic.
If you read the entire diary you will see that there are any number of investigations referenced by various entities. Notice how there is absolutely no mention of anything investigated by the Joint Task Force on Foreclosure Fraud? What’s the point of having a cool name if you don’t use it?
I won’t quote anymore, the entire thing is a travesty beyond belief. It touts cash payments to wronged homeowners without mentioning that they are puny. They say that the checks will be funded through the state AG’s office without any acknowledgement that the money is apparently going into the various state’s general funds with no guarantee that they make it to any homeowner before being swallowed up in state deficits.
In short, it’s on a par with the quality of the whole Potemkin exercise to date.
26 Comments
Do they really think that anyone is buying into their spin?
Well, the reaction to this diary seems like an embarrassed silence, like someone farted in public but no one wants to point it out. I think it’s politeness – plenty of people over there know what a farce the settlement is. Cough, look away.
This extremely lame justification with the byline of the HUD Secretary and the Attorney General of the United States should serve as a warning to everyone of how little they even care enough to craft a well reasoned defense of their complete abrogation of their duties.
Why was Justice even a part of what essentially was just another bailout? The only reason Justice was asked for their imprimatur was to authorize the non-prosecutions.
They’re just phoning it in.
KOS
No need to say anything more.
I am surprised that they even bother to write anything.
Yes……they have all those Corporate progressives with radio,websites & TV shows to push their bullshit lies.
The have it posted at Huffpo too. There is about 120 comments, almost all excoriating them or demanding they resign. :)
David Dayen @ FDL has covered all this about the faux settlement in depth, this shit from Koz is SO after the fact. Not to mention, I’d bet some of it’s pure jive.
Meh.
Thanks! The comments are ripping them to shreds.
Donovan and Holder make the mistake of thinking the public is uninformed about the foreclosure and banking crises and that they can just roll out the usual blather. Millions of Americans personally lost money and are foreclosed or underwater or just barely hanging on and they made it their business to understand what happened, how it happened, and why it happened. And they actually thought they might get some justice in this world.
Donovan and Holder deserve the excoriation. And so does the President for allowing this farce to continue for going on 4 years without credible results.
The DC Dems, suckers up and kickers down, have so little respect for us, the little people, the 99%ers, that they bring their D game (as opposed to the A game, or B or even C game) to writing up bullshit about their fucking us over and fucking us with this stupid arsebackwards excuse of an excuse.
This “shit” is posted on both Kos and Huffpo with the actual byline of Donovan and Holder. I guess they have no idea of how in depth the coverage has been (in particular by David Dayen here and by Yves Smith at nakedcapitalism) and how well people understand what has happened.
I can’t believe they would put their names to this BS.
Amen to that. What a pathetic piece of gag-inducing propaganda on the foreclosure fraud settlement fraud from two thoroughly discredited players. It really does insult the intelligence of everyone who has been paying attention.
Three tips for the tip jar and five recommendations on the DKos diary. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. And it’s been up since 8:30 this morning?
Ha!
Exactly!
As of now, there are a whopping eight comments. It’s basically three people, one of whom pointing out they “were just phoning it in.”
I guess there were just too many lies in it, even for O-bots to respond to.
“HOLDING BANKS ACCOUNTABLE.” is a bad title as the poster is correct that “accountable” is in the eye of the beholder – and many including myself expected a bit more. The writing is also sloppy as particulars.
Most of the crimes of the rich and corporate on the rest of us are never brought to justice – never made right – and indeed never mitigated.
This settlement in effect is just forcing the banks to do what they should do logically without it – offer principal write downs to those that would able to afford a loan for the current market value after such loan modification.
But then near zero write downs were occurring before the settlement, no mitigation was on offer, and near zero penalties were being collected. There is no way the Banks are at fault for the massive loss in wealth, and there is no way in law to make them give money to homeowners to restore that wealth – indeed those many trillions are gone – and even making loans no longer under water via principle reduction requires $800 billion that is not going to happen – because a market downturn is not an event that is someone else’s fault that you can then get reimbursed for.
The settlement I thought should have been larger – but I am glad we got a settlement that forces the start of Banks doing principal reductions. Homeowners are now better off.
Those that wanted to go the 20 years of legal battles may be right that the final score would have been much higher in terms of the hit on the Banks – or they may be wrong. It is a bet the economy is better off not taking. The settlement will finally unfreeze the housing market, and that is a good thing.
So far there are only 8 comments, most negative.
It’s telling that this diary has more comments on it that the dkos one.
Astounding!
2:04 am on the 16th and still only 8 comments at Dkos. This landed with a resounding thud.
It’s the proverbial lead balloon.
Not even any of the sycophants turned out to applaud on what is essentially a pro-Dem website. That is extremely telling.
The lack of positive comments over there and the incredibly negative ones over at Huffpo should have Obama very worried.
Millions of Americans victimized by the banksters feel victimized yet again by the lack of positive and credible and TIMELY action on the parts of HUD, Treasury, and most especially JUSTICE. At the very least, this dampens enthusiasm for Obama. At the very worst it makes people susceptible to staying home and not voting or even voting for a non-Dem as a protest vote.
The Administration can chalk this one up as a solid LOSS if they are keeping score.
This is how incompetent and/or insincere Dems push the nation rightward. This administration will be compared to the Carter administration in years to come.
Good catch. Nice to see his diary languishing in the wilderness there – not many comments. Although I suspect if O-pologists notice, they might flock to it and out it on the Rec list.
OK – i’ll augment the reply supply. Obama showed his colors when he didn’t do the FDR thing and ignore Bush’s please right up to his inauguration, but instead went hand in glove with Bush and Wall Street to preserve the capitalist bandits at the expense of the electorate. Why do you think his inauguration speech was so downbeat?? He was preparing his contituency to take it in the shorts so Dimon and Blankfein and AIG and the rest of the plutocratic cadre could breathe easier that he wasn’t going to tear them apart and divest them of their criminally acquired wealth (in exchange for GUESS WHAT). After 3 years of lip service covering up the horrendous breaches of the basic rule of law, including even how real estate itself may be legally conveyed, why the hell shouldn’t he and his AG figure the American peope as a whole are the biggest bunch of chumps since the Three Stooges?!
Really? Wow!!
Too much even for the Kossacks. The negative reply’s are getting plussed into orbit. There is one semi-positive comment, but that’s it.
And here’s what’s really telling to me: Normally, if a thread turns against ObamaLLP it vanishes. Kos has not made this one vanish.
i wonder if Holder/Donovan are reading the comments at KOS. They’ll probably wait for the DHS rollup of the comments from here.
Boxturtle (if they are reading, do you think they’re smart enough to realize there’s a problem?)
Geez, look at all the terrorists commenting over at HuffPo. :-)
They’ve lost Huffpo. They’ve lost KOS. They never really had FDL. I guess ObamaLLP’s last hope is for Fox to pick up that diary.
The fact that they published under Holders name shows either desperation or completely out of touch with reality.
Boxturtle (Or both)
Hey I know.
ROCKY ANDERSON FOR PRESIDENT
As a rally point and an organizational tool.
Better than just complaining.
What a load a bullshit. Really?
“…market downturn is not an event that is someone else’s fault that you can then get reimbursed for.”
This was not some natural business cycle. This was a gammed system of fraudulent mortgages sold by these banks and other players to siphon real wealth away from governments, pension funds, etc. and replace it with toxic crap. Then, no investigations, except what was started by a few state attorneys, no prosecutions, no accountability and bailouts to the fuckers who did all this as high as you can imagine, and then some. Who’s left holding the flaming bag of shit? All of us, people who lost their homes, livelihoods, even lives in some cases.
Yet here your are peddling this utter defeatist pabulum of a inside fix “settlement” from Barry-0 and his cadre of criminals. This settlement is a crime and those responsible need to be dealt with. Then, the real investigations can start.
Ok, I kinda missed the thrust of your diary till I began to read all the comments . . . yes, it’s a travesty by Donovan, Holder and Obama by proxy for sure.
Thanks for bringing this one out to light, I find it hilarious that KOZ has few comments and enjoy knowing that HuffPo comments are quite well informed and scathing about it all, like good proggies would be . . . a bit ‘off’ for centrisism DIM Obama HuffPo I must admit . . . refreshing if only for one issue. ;-)
Thanks again, rcc’d.
This issue is going to manifest itself at the ballot box come November. I only hope that DIMS will not vote ReThug, but 3rd party or some other choice (write in, etc.).
THAT will send a huge message to both parties (not that I think it would change them much, but still, it WILL present them both a challenge on how to react to voters).
Can’t wait. ;-)